Conexant AMC Audio problem(?) on a Gateway MX6421

[washington.steven]

Hello all,

I've recently been having an interesting problem with audio on my
computer (Gateway MX6421 with Windows xp Media Center SP2. 1.8 Ghz, 512
MB RAM)

Whenever I plug my headphones in, I not only hear audio through the
headphones but also through the speakers. While this is advantageous (I
can hook up speakers and have a blast of sound), in situations where I
need to use headphones, I'm left without a leg to stand on. Could this
be a problem with the sound card itself? Or is there some sort of
software fix?

Thanks!

 

[Paul]

Hello all,

I've recently been having an interesting problem with audio on my
computer (Gateway MX6421 with Windows xp Media Center SP2. 1.8 Ghz, 512
MB RAM)

Whenever I plug my headphones in, I not only hear audio through the
headphones but also through the speakers. While this is advantageous (I
can hook up speakers and have a blast of sound), in situations where I
need to use headphones, I'm left without a leg to stand on. Could this
be a problem with the sound card itself? Or is there some sort of
software fix?

Thanks!

I would check whatever Conexant audio software came with
the laptop. On some audio chips, it is possible to stream
stereo to two jacks, so both jacks have the same signal.
You could check to see if that mode was enabled.

There are a couple of jack types on computers. On desktop
computers, the headphone jack on the front, can mechanically
interrupt the signal to the speakers on the back of the
computer. It is pretty hard to upset that scheme and have
the symptoms you've got.

On HDaudio equipped computers, all of the features are
controlled electronically, and there is no switching
right on the jack itself. Jack sensing on those computers
is done with a "side contact pair" - in other words, when
something is plugged into the computer, a separate switch
that doesn't touch the audio stream, is actuated. The
software can detect that the switch is closed on a jack
and knows something has been plugged in. In some cases,
the chip will also measure the load impedance (somehow,
and I don't know how that works), and the audio software
can classify the device type by its impedance. What should
happen, is if a 32 ohm load is seen, that would be classed
as headphones, and it should cause other channels to be
disabled. But, by enabling a dual streaming option in a
control panel, it is in some cases, also possible to
convince the software to drive two sets of headphones
with the same content.

So the best place to look, is in whatever mixer panel or
setup software that the audio chip comes with.

Paul